Earn Big Returns with an Effective Web Site Marketing Plan

What does your web site do for your company? If you answered anything other than, “Increases profit,” the web site is a liability. Grab the lion’s share of online customers looking for your products and services--or your competition will. Learn how by answering The Five Questions.

Five Questions You Need to Ask Before Investing in Web Site Marketing

You wouldn’t pay a contractor to build a new office building for your company until you were certain that the construction would more than pay for itself by meeting your current needs and anticipating future growth. In the same way, an investment in web design and development needs a solid plan before construction begins. 

Ask Yourself:

1.    What do we want the web site to do for our organization?
Start your site’s web design and development by analyzing your company’s web site marketing objectives. Do you need to establish your company’s branding and image online? Increase sales? Bring in more leads? Reduce operation costs and improve efficiency? 

2.    Who do we want to attract to the site?
Know who your target customer is and exactly what they’re looking for. Then work with your web site development consultant to implement strategies that capture the prospect’s attention and lead them to your site. 

3.    What do we want the visitor to do when they arrive at our web site?
Contact you for more information? Get a quote? Make a purchase? The web site development and design should appeal to visitors, build your credibility, overcome any hesitations they may have, and entice them to act immediately. 

4.    How will we know what marketing strategies are successful and what need to be improved?
A solid web analytics program gives you detailed information about the success of your internet marketing campaigns--who is visiting, where they’ve come from, what they’re looking for, how they behave on your site, and much more. Most web developers can implement web analytics technology in a web site, but it’s essential that your web analytics strategy includes an expert who knows how to interpret this information, see how it fits with your web site marketing objectives, and make effective recommendations. 

5.    Technology changes rapidly. How do we keep our site current and relevant?
A vital part of an effective web design and development strategy is planning for future growth and changes in technology. Your internet marketing consultant, like other trusted business advisors, should create a web site that anticipates changing technology and easily accommodates it. They should also conduct regular evaluations of your site’s status, and make recommendations to ensure you stay on top of the competition.

 

Do you have more questions about marketing your business online? NetEdge's expertise and dedication to helping our customers achieve their internet marketing objectives sets us apart. 

Landing Page Design

Only 2 seconds - glory or gloom?

  
Research shows that visitors to a web page take between 2 to 8 seconds to decide whether they have come to the right place. Your landing page can either hold their attention in those precious 2 seconds or watch them click away from it. If they stay, you now stand a better chance that they will go find what they came looking for by following through on the call(s) to action you set for them. What this means is that a mere 2 seconds is all the time you have to achieve conversion or face failure.

Now that is a tough challenge. One that you should be fully prepared for. An important part of being prepared is knowing what the best practices are and avoiding common mistakes in landing page design, content and implementation.
 

Landing Page - A Gateway to Your Brand

First impressions count, so make sure they're great!  

 
Similar to a store's window display or signage, a landing page is often the first touch point for your brand. A potential customer's impression of your landing page goes a long way in determining and influencing his or her experience with your brand. It's up to you to ensure that this impression is a positive one, because you can be sure, it will be a lasting one!

From a design planning and layout perspective it helps to keep in mind that:

• A majority of users will quickly scan a landing page like a magazine or book cover - left to right, diagonally across and down the page and back to the top.
• A strategically designed landing page will have the main message front and centre at the top of the page.
• The call to action or conversion tool (form, button, coupon, etc.) will be also be very close to the top on the right-hand side.
• The main body text will be above the fold and neatly formatted for easy scanning.

These are the fundamentals that can help optimize the results of your landing page

A Landing Page Does Not Have to Be A Final Destination

If they have landed, they must travel, explore, discover and experience!  

 
Be aware that if your visitors have stayed beyond the 2 seconds you can do much more with their mindshare. Not every visitor may convert right away. Many will want to know more about your company and products / services. There are some that will linger, click on the link(s) to other pages of your website (so make sure you have some good ones in there), take their time to get more information before clicking on your form or call to action button on the landing page.

Let there be no confusion that the focus of your landing page should still be on that one important message and lead to a single, strong call to action. Too many images, verbose copy, confusing and cluttered calls to action will simply distract visitors and drop your performance levels. However, it pays to think beyond the short-term objectives of a landing page and integrate your online strategies for the long term. Return on investment or ROI is not a one-time gain; there are ways to keep it ongoing and incremental.